A Touchy Subject.........need some advice on marketing an e-book

I think that you have done a reasonbly good job with your site, but do have just a couple of comments.

You mentioned here that you had a blog, but it took me quite a bit to find the link to it, and as soon as I clicked on the link I was not even sure if I was on the same site!

Yes, your blog really should be using the same layout as your site and the nav link for it should be within your header. By all means maintain the blogspot blog, but consider just posting 1-2 paragraphs to it with a more link on it pointing back to the full post on your own site. The forum idea sounds like it would be a nice touch as well - you might want to consider having both open and closed forums - and as a bonus when people purchase, they get a login to the closed forum where they can discuss their condition with other people in a similar situation.

The price point seems reasonable and I don't think that lowering the price would help. What you might want to do is consider strengthening your co-operation with the various associations around the world and ensure that they are signed up as affiliates - It looks to be a natural and reasonable partnership opportunity to take. YOu wil with increased traffic/sales, and those associations win with a small amount of additional revenue.

Giving away 75% to affiliates seems like a fair bit to me, It would probably be more realistic to drop this down a little bit - after all, you are tring to actually make a few $$ out of the work you have and continue to put in. I would have thought that even at 65% you would retain your affiliates and you would at least be making a fiver per affiliate sale for yourself.

After reading it here, I have actually sent the link to a friend who is a long-time sufferer. Best of luck with your site....

 

Is your book really good ? is it really helping people ?

 

RRWH.

Thanx for the great advice. I obviously have a lot to do and I can see some of the mistakes I am making. Thats what makes DP one of the greatest sites around. Its a place to learn. Im not quite sure how top make the blog template look like my site. There are only a few templates available at BLOGSPOT. I have, however, been contemplating changing the template to something which resemble my site.

Does my e-book help?
Yes in fact it does. All the testimonials on my site are from people I have close contact with. Its strange but I have come to the conclusion that just listening to someone who has been let down elsewhere and pointing them in the right direction can actualy help. I can back this up with references too.

If anyone is interested in reading it or knows someone that may need some suport on this matter, I would be glad to help. Just Pm me and I will send you the download link

 

Thanx once more for the feedback. The e-book ALONe wil help but its the personal support per telephone, messenger or e mail that makes the difference. This means lots of hours at the pc ( its 1.30am here ) but at the end of the day its worth it to me. So you see...its a combination of both that makes the difference. The reader has the feeling he is being taken seriously and not simply as a statistic on the bottom of a click bank statement or pay pal account readout.

I suppose this is the whole rage huh?....sell e books and offer personal support to back it up with.

 

My wife sells products for people with sleep apnea and she spends a lot of personal time helping them She enjoys it but at the end of the day, she gets paid for what she does. I think you should too.

What if you sold the ebook for $47 (since you say it works) and with that you would include access to the forum and your Instant Messenger number. That way you could answer questions and help people and get paid a little better for it.

Rather than lowering your price or giving it away, increase the price and add value.

Thank you as you have given me an idea. I have a medical condition that is fairly wide spread but not may people discuss openly similar to tinnitus.

Good Luck.

 

Giving the book away and asking for donations instead might be a good idea if it's not selling too well or if you are able to monetize the site in a different way.

Perhaps you can give that guide away for free but sell another guide? It could spread more. But if you're having such success already, I suspect that people are happy to pay the price.

Brian

 

Hi Russ......... I have nothing against making $ 47,00 a book but are there ppl around who will willingly pay that kind of monye for an e-book. Or are you saying it would be a good idea to sell the book AND the whole package incuding 1 on 1 personal support. I suppose this was the idea I started this thread to get a sense of what I can ask for my services without taking advantage of a situation and appearing to be nothing more than another dude trying to sell e-books.
As I stated before this project did cost a lot of money to start.Things like
purchasing the domain, webhosting, e-book software etc. After the book was written I had to have it proof read. I had the logo, e-book cover designed and spent hundreds on having the site submitted to directories etc

Where would the best place to be to fiind more affiliates?. At the monet they are all from Click Bank,

 

At the moment I sell my ebook for 12 dollars, affiliates can earn 25% of sales, and have access to a forum, for questions on earning money as an affiliate to questions about sections of my book.

 

Thanx for your input John. Have you thought of looking for more affiliates through click bank ? Is the book selling ?

 

I haven't used clickbank. I try my best to market and sell through my own means to help increase overall profit. And yes my book has sold, I had a large group of people that I have been helping for some while now in some way or another, who were anxious for me to put all of my tips and tricks into one easy to follow guide. As of this moment I have sold over 60 copies within the last week since it released.

 

Is it possible to issure someone the re-sell rights to my e-book?. If so, how is this issue to me managed. Do I sell some one the rights to re-sell my book at a price he or she sets new or do I sell the whole package for a set sum.

Can anyone offer any input on the issure of re-selling rights for e-books ?

 

It depends on what program you use to make the ebook. I used a premium version of ebookmaestro to make mine, and re-sell rights came with the total package.

 

Hi,

I have a very simple marketing idea. Making it free suddenly might raise negative aspect in positive buyers / users. Making them think that "it was not selling etc. they made it free."

To save yourself from this and other doubts which may arise in customers mind i have the following idea for you.

Simply start selling 2 version of it. A basic version and a pro vesion. You can keep basic version at a very very low price lets say $1-2 and do not offer any support at all etc.

Where as in pro version you charge them and provide the maximum support. This way you will be targeting all types of customers. Weather free, low cost, paid, need support etc.

This is the best policy and it suits everyone's budget. Everyone can have it, everyone can benefit from it. Whats the benefits for you ?

Well you got the money you need to provide the support. You won't feel that oh i am not getting dontations so i cannot spend anymore of my precious time on it. Every company is now a days doing this. Product is free, but if you need support you have to pay. Some eg. Redhat, Sun Microsystems etc.

I have seen several very fine products die becuase they were unable to coupe with the demands as the owner did'nt had resources to spend. Also when you are paid you have liability on your shoulders that you have been paid by xyz person and now you have to do the task.

I hope this helps.

Thanks.

 

This sounds like a good idea. If I understand correctly you are advising selling the book on its own for a small fee and offering the PRO version complete with a Tinnitus Online Support Package which will include 1 on 1 personall support etc.....the works.

Interesting concept I must say. Thankyou for your kind feedback.

 

than x for the pm guys. I have taken the hint....no links on my page for donations or the such. I think a combination of Russ´s and AvisSoft ideas may be the best solution to the problem. Selling the book too expensie wont help anyone, not would selling the book too cheap. It would probably loose its credibility. I will try to stress the the personal 1 to 1 support as the main product and the book as a kind of guidebook to assist the proceedings.

I suppose the old saying is right...."if life hands you a lemon, make lemonade"

 

Sounds like a good idea. Provide some advice which will help people in the free version but you can always upsell to the higher priced, higher support version.

 

I ve taken the advice above and I am working on a double package. The small package will cost $ 9,95 and the larger package will include personal 1 to 1 support for as long the customer requires and will cost $ 47,00 as previously advised.

My only problem is that I dont want to call the 2 packages "Basic" and " Pro" or anything like that. If possible I would like to find something a little more subtle. I must not forget that I am selling a personal service more than a product. Most of the customers have already been let down by common medicine and have probably already been through quite an ordeal or purchased so called "Tinnitus pills". From personal experience I know that lots of money has been spent on numerous therapies and remedies so you can imagine that I dont want to sound as if Im selling a "Webmaster SEO Package deal"

Of course I am open to any suggestions as I have already run out of ideas. I even though about "Silver" and "Gold" but even that sounds kind of phoney!

Oh well...any suggestions please!!

 

hi
You could call it packet 1 and packet 2.
Pro and Pro+ , well, not very subtle...

 

Here is the deal. Most people who run websites are searching high and low on some unique idea to market and then paying all kinds of people to help them create a community.

You have both already and are looking for ways to monetize. That is the bottom line.

A couple suggestions off the top of my head. Spend the $50 to create a company and apply for adsense through that.

Use this "community" to your advantage.

If you can afford it, pay someone to show you how to set this up in a way that will make you money without looking like a scam artist. Think of all the big companies that you respect. They are making money. There is nothing wrong with that. Get over the remorse. The more money you make, the more people you can help.

You could make the forum free to people with the purchase of the ebook. Then you can have a "community" level of membership and "premium" membership which includes phone support. You could even name this "support level" membership. A note of warning: Since this is a medical condition, make sure your verbiage is legally safe. Nobody needs to get sued for practicing medicine without a license.

At the minimum you need to be putting out a regular email newsletter that advertises products related tot he condition.

To me it looks like you are sitting on a gold mine.

 

Thanx login ..... O-=

Thanx Carl.., Yes that sounds like sound advice. I am currantly in the middle of setting up a forum. Regarding the giving advice on a medical condition, I ve checked and double checked again. The base of my support will be motivating people who have this condition the re-programm their minds on concentrating on other things other thanthe noise they are hearing. Form my own experience the method involves being able to understand what these poeple are going through and showing them that the only way to come to terms witht his condition is to face up to it and learn to co exit with itbecause its their only option. I stress once more that I am giving NO medical advice whatsoever. I also clearly state this in my homepage.

Anyway Carl, thanx for the great input. I cant sleep at night at the moment because this is keeping me up racking my brains to finfd the best solution possible

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